Artless Fabrications

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted and I’m not going to go into any details or make excuses, other than to say that it’s been a difficult time. I’m still pulling things together and putting myself out there like this isn’t easy right now, but it’s long overdue. I have to thank my Bubby for the gentle nudge – without you I couldn’t do this right now.

I thought I’d share some photos from our third annual quilt show, held back in May. This served as a wind-up for the 2018-2019 session of the Plenty Piecemakers Quilt Club and gave the students/members an opportunity to show off all their hard work. The show is held in the Plenty United Church and it proves to be the most perfect venue highlighted by the backdrop of those spectacular stained glass windows.

Plenty Piecemakers club quilts

More Plenty Piecemakers club quilts

One of Joan's beautiful Edwardian dresses from her collection

The show was very well attended and provided a wonderful opportunity to share with the community, as well as a substantial fund raiser for the church. Considering the limited size of our quilt group (five students and myself), I think we put on a lovely display, filling every pew with quilts, and it definitely seems to improve year after year.

Until next time,

always, carol xox

I’m quilting a very special piece for someone else at the moment and thought you might like an update, as I’m just over the halfway mark. The entire quilt top is constructed in hand dyed fabrics, in the Hunter’s Star pattern, and I’m quilting it in one of my own custom free-form designs using Arabian Nights thread. We could not have picked a more beautiful thread colour for this quilt. But boy, am I going through thread!!! This is a big quilt!

until next time, always carol xox

Yesterday’s project was not a quilty one but it still got finished by the end of the day. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to blog about it so today is a twofer, starting with the lovely shawl that I had been working on since before my trip to Red Deer at the beginning of the month.

Before - photo taken on Saturday morning

After - photo taken Saturday night

I was really happy to get this shawl off the hook and into the ‘done’ category. I will probably take it to the quilt show and try to sell it. I only have about four left in stock right now, including this most recent one, but they tend to sell quite quickly at $75.00 each. I probably won’t be making many more of these lovelies, however, as it’s become too difficult to get the yarn. This one is quite special in that it was hooked on one of my new, handcrafted, rosewood crochet hooks that I purchased from the young musical instrument artisan in Mexico City.

Next up is my Sunday project which was mounted on the longarm frame just this morning…

This morning I took my Bull’s Eye quilt off the longarm and machine sewed the binding on! The top photo shows the back of the quilt and a much better view of the quilting design. I did a somewhat custom design with wild swirls in the bull’s eye circles and a freeform paisley in between and into the borders. The combination of both designs gives awesome texture to the quilt top and I can’t wait to see how the circles fray after it has its first wash and a tumble in the dryer.

Then the next thing to go onto the frame today was a cute table runner that I had pieced up as a class sample a couple of months ago. I quickly whipped up a backing and some binding for it and as soon as the other quilt came off this went straight on. As you can see by the final photo, it’s all quilted up and has the binding machine sewn on too. This one might just be a ‘keeper’ because it would look pretty sweet on my kitchen table and I’m quite sure the cats would love it too.

until next time, always carol xox

I managed to get another quilt top mounted on the longarm frame this morning and have made good progress on the quilting. This is another quilt I want to have ready for our quilt show that is approaching too quickly. I also have plans to add this quilt project/technique to the lineup of workshops I’ll be teaching in the next few months so I need to have the sample ready for display. If all goes as planned, this one will be ready to bind in a jiffy and with another trip to Alberta on the schedule, I’ll need some nightime sewing to do in the hotel room.

until next time, always carol xox

A few years ago I taught a workshop in my gallery and each student was provided a tablerunner kit that I had made up prior to the start of the class. Most pieces were already pre-cut by me and basically everyone just had to sew everything together and then applique the leaf motifs in place. The results were quick and impressive, therefore encouraging beginners to move towards the quilting and binding stage.

While in my organization mode at the moment, I’ve discovered one of these old kits that hadn’t been sold and I thought it would be a quick project to put together for my sale table at the quilt show. This would also count in my 100 days project, I think.

There is still quilting and binding to do on this one but at least it’s all sewn together now, ready to move forward.

until next time, as always, carol xox

Last year, in an attempt to tidy up my scrap buckets, I started string piecing on telephone book pages. Today I pulled out that project and made some more blocks, six to be precise. That didn’t really make a dent in my scraps or strings but at least it was a little progress forward. This quilt won’t get finished for a long while yet and that’s okay with me, as there are just some projects that are longterm no matter how quickly you can sew. I’ll just gather everything together, including the telephone book, and give it some space on the shelf until next time I feel like stringing along. This is a technique I’ll be teaching in an upcoming workshop – keep watching for more news on that 😮

until next time, always carol xox

I hope all is as it should be, therefore, this is basically just a test run of the blog. I’ve been having a great deal of problems and suspect some form of hacking into my site, and I’m very sad about that. I’ve been so incredibly busy, unusually so for this time of year, with a great many things happening on the home-front and work-wise.

I had been plowing my way through the stacked up project pile and hit a glitch when my longarm just stopped. Since I was on my way to Red Deer last week, I made a quick detour to Edmonton and dropped off my machine at the dealership for service, not knowing what was wrong or when I’d get it back. Well, what a pleasant surprise to get a message two days later saying, not only was it fixed but, that they would bring it to the quilt show so I could pick it up there instead of driving all the way back to Edmonton.

Since arriving back home the machine has been set up and running full force, even better than when it was purchased six years ago! The quilt that was mounted on the frame when things went haywire has now been completed and there is another one already one third of the way done. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

You may remember this quilt from a few weeks back, when it was just a flimsy on the clothesline. It’s now fresh off the quilting frame and has the binding machine sewn around it, and I’m currently in the process of hand sewing the binding down. This is my version of the quilt/block of the month I’ve been teaching at the Plenty church since last June and I really wanted to have it finished in time for our third annual quilt show on May 4th. Tight deadlines are always a great motivator, don’t you think?

until next time, always carol xox

My last post seems to be struggling, I’ve tried to post it three times now and it won’t post in its entirety. Not sure what’s going on but I’m determined to get to the bottom of it – sorry about that